Akron General Announces Layoffs

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(Courtesy: MGN Online)

Akron General Announces Layoffs

(Courtesy: MGN Online)

AKRON, Ohio — Akron General Health System Friday announced that 132 employees will be laid off as part of a “staffing realignment” that could save nearly $12 million.

The workers affected represent 2.5 percent of the hospital system’s workforce of more than 5,200 employees. They include management, non-management, union and non-union positions, according to a press release. The release also states very few of the jobs are “in direct patient care.”

Also as part of the realignment, nearly 50 vacant positions will not be filled.

The system said it is “undergoing a transformation” and did not meet budget targets in 2012, due to a drop in patient volume and changes in governmental payment and regulations. It said it’s also taking steps to balance resources with staffing levels appropriate to its volumes.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision, because it impacts our dedicated employees,” Thomas L. Stover, president and CEO of Akron General Health System, said in the release. “We are working with each employee to ease the transition as much as we can.”